Trump Goes Full Warmonger Towards Iran In Oval Office Appearance

This week, a global spotlight has again been turned towards Iran, who’s suspected of being behind a recent attack on Saudi oil facilities. President Donald Trump has said this week that the United States is “locked and loaded” in preparation for a potential conflict with Iran in the wake of that incident, and this Monday at the White House, he returned to that topic, although his explanation was a bit more… let’s just say jumbled this time. He seemingly quite proudly walked through a laundry list of U.S. military capabilities, but he insisted that he doesn’t “want war.” Sure.

Sitting next to the crown prince of Bahrain, whose country is nestled right next to the Saudis and who faced a closure of a major oil pipeline after the attack, Trump told reporters:

‘Do I want war? I don’t want war with anybody. I’m somebody that would like not to have war. We have the strongest military in the world; we’ve spent more than a trillion and a half dollars in the last short period of time on our military. Nobody’s even come close. Web have the best equipment in the world. We have the best missiles… there’s nothing even close. But no I don’t want war with anybody, but we’re prepared more than anybody. Two and a half years ago, I will tell you, it was not the same thing.’

Is there anything that Trump can resist turning into some kind of half-hearted political attack on Obama?

Down in the real world, the attack has sent a wrench into the global economy, grinding at least some five percent of the global oil supply to a halt. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen have claimed responsibility for the attack, which was carried out via drone strike, but Trump keeps insisting so far that he’ll wait on further confirmation of who’s to blame — and whether it’s right that Iranian authorities directly launched the attack — before deciding what to do. Top officials like Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have directly blamed Iran.

Trump has insisted that the attack on the oil processing facilities “could be met with an attack many, many times larger from our country” — suggesting that he’s again contemplating some kind of major military action.

In the past, he’s tweeted that he’s ready to wipe Iran off the face of the earth if provoked, which would of course entail mass murder. He made similar threats against North Korea before eventually meeting multiple times with their dictator Kim Jong Un, although in this situation with Iran, the possibility of Trump directly meeting with their leadership in an attempt to diffuse the situation is up in the air.

Occasions on which Trump has actually followed through with his belligerence include the missile strikes he authorized against Syrian government facilities after government authorities used chemical weapons against civilians. The civil war in that country has continued despite the strikes.